James Cagney Quotes

Once a song and dance man, always a song and dance man. Those few words tell as much about me professionally as there is to tell.

You dirty rat...

Where once was a vertebrae is now a tangle, from constant kissing at an awkward angle.

The Postman Always RingsTwice.

My childhood was surrounded by trouble, illness, and my dad's alcoholism, but as I said, we just didn't have the time to be impressed by all those misfortunes. I have an idea that the Irish possess a built-in don't-give-a-damn that helps them through all the stress.

Learn your lines ... plant your feet ... look the other actor in the eye ... say the words ... mean them.

I`m sick of carrying guns and beating up women.

Outside of my family, the prime concern of my life has been nature and its order, and how we have been savagely altering that order.

I got a part as a chorus girl in a show called Every Sailor and I had fun doing it. Mother didn't really approve of it, through.

I hate the word superstar". I have never been able to think in those terms. They are overstatements. You don`t hear them speak of Shakespeare as a superpoet. You don`t hear them call Michelangelo a superpainter. They only apply the word to this mundane market

You don't psych yourself up for these things, you do them ... I'm acting for the audience, not for myself, and I do it as directly as I can.